Director, Merchandising Planning & Analysis

How We LEAD

The Director will be responsible for establishing planning frameworks, driving financial rigor across line plans and product portfolios, and enabling data-informed decision making across Direct-to-Consumer, U.S. Retail, International Retail, and Tour channels. This role requires a strong combination of financial acumen, merchandising understanding, product finance expertise, analytical rigor, and cross-functional leadership.

How You'll CREATE

• Establish scalable planning frameworks that improve forecast accuracy and drive revenue, margin, inventory, and profitability performance.
• Enable data-driven merchandising and product decisions through reporting, insights, financial analysis, and scenario planning.
• Serve as a key strategic partner to Finance, Merchandising, and Product teams, ensuring alignment on targets, assumptions, investments, risks, and opportunities.
• Bring structure and visibility to the merchandising business through consistent processes, integrated planning, and performance tracking.
• Connect product creation and assortment strategies to financial goals, ensuring product decisions support sustainable, profitable growth.
• Owntop-down financial planning across channels while partnering closely with channel planning teams to connect top-down targets with bottom-up plans.

Financial Planning & Forecasting

• Partner with the VP of Product Merchandising and Finance to develop revenue forecasts, margin targets, inventory plans, and financial plans across artists, categories, and channels.
• Own and manage forecasting processes, including Open-to-Buy planning, demand forecasting, scenario modeling, and multi-season operating plans.
• Support pre-season financial target-setting for revenue, margin, inventory, and profitability across DTC, U.S. Retail, International Retail, and Tour channels.
• Monitor performance against plan, identifying risks and opportunities and driving corrective actions.
• Support long-range planning, annual budgeting, and ongoing FP&A processes.

Product Finance, Profitability & Portfolio Management

• Act as a strategic thought partner linking the product creation and merchandising process to the company’s financial goals.
• Develop holistic analyses of the end-to-end financial impact of product lines, including costing, pricing, margin performance, inventory investment, and assortment productivity.
• Evaluate product portfolio performance across artists, categories, and channels, identifying opportunities to optimize assortment mix, profitability, and marketplace inventory health.
• Assess cross-category and cross-channel trade-offs to support high-impact product investments and drive sustainable growth.
• Partner with Merchandising, Production, Supply Chain, and Finance to evaluate product economics, including cost structure, margin opportunities, and inventory risk.

Line Plan & Assortment Analytics

• Partner with Merchandising to ensure line plans are grounded in financial targets, consumer demand, and performance expectations.
• Analyze assortment productivity, pricing architecture, category performance, and margin performance across categories and channels.
• Provide recommendations to optimize assortment mix, pricing, inventory allocation, and product lifecycle decisions.
• Support pre-season and in-season planning decisions through data, financial modeling, and analysis.
• Help ensure product assortments balance creative ambition, consumer demand, financial targets, and operational feasibility.

Data, Reporting & Insights

• Build and maintain standardized reporting frameworks and dashboards across DTC, retail, international, and tour channels.
• Track and communicate key performance indicators, including revenue, margin, sell-through, inventory health, profitability, demand trends, and forecast accuracy.
• Deliver actionable insights based on sales data, consumer behavior, product performance, and market trends.
• Partner with analytics, finance, and data teams to enhance reporting capabilities, planning tools, and financial visibility.
• Translate complex financial and product performance data into clear narratives for senior leaders and cross-functional partners.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as the primary liaison between Merchandising and Finance, ensuring alignment on assumptions, targets, investments, risks, and performance.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain, Production, Retail, DTC, International, and Tour teams to align inventory, demand planning, costing, and financial expectations.
• Partner with Merchandising and Product teams to align creative and commercial product strategies with financial objectives.
• Support business reviews, providing clear narratives on performance, forward-looking risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.
• Influence decision-making across cross-functional teams by providing clear financial analysis, strategic context, and actionable recommendations.

Process & Planning Excellence

• Establish and standardize planning processes, tools, and templates across the merchandising organization.
• Drive consistency in line planning inputs, financial assumptions, product investment criteria, and reporting methodologies.
• Improve speed, accuracy, and transparency of planning across a growing global business.
• Create an integrated planning model that connects top-down financial targets with bottom-up channel, assortment, and product plans.
• Build processes that improve visibility into product profitability, inventory investment, forecast accuracy, and business performance.

Perks Playlist

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Including 100% coverage for out-patient in-network mental health services.
• Fertility coverage for eligible medical plan participants.
• Wellbeing reimbursements for fitness classes, spa treatments, meal services, travel, and so much more (up to $720/year).
• Student Loan Repayment Assistance and Tuition Reimbursement.
• 401(k) with 100% immediate vesting on the first 5% of your contributions, plus an additional UMG contribution.
• A variety of ways to prioritize much-needed time away from work including:
  • Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO) for exempt employees.
  • 3-weeks PTO for non-exempt employees.
  • 2-weeks paid Winter Break.
  • 10 Company Holidays (including Juneteenth and Wellbeing Day).
  • Summer Fridays (between Memorial Day and Labor Day).